When I speak of history I speak well;
I leave behind the past where broken bones
Lay scattered on blistering sands to tell
Of atrocities that are mostly groans.
While you may feel the pain lurking inside
With hurt failing any impunity;
And browse pages upon pages to ride
This feeling of guilt, remorse or pity,
It was Columbus sailing the great tides
Out discovering many a new world;
And Sir Francis Drake loved the battle cries –
Chicanery as a new age unfurled.
The mind finds revelations in the past,
So meaningful and useful to the last.
Leonard Dabydeen is author of Watching You, A Collection of Tetractys Poems , Xlibris Publication(2012); Searching for You, A Collection of Tetractys and Fibonacci Poems, Xlibris Publication (2015)
Thank you, Evan Mantyk for posting my poem. Very much appreciated.
Leonard
come to think of it, who has stood up for history. even my ultra conservative roots are still brainwashed enough to where i didn’t realize it until i read this poem. history is awesome and treasured. it’s beautiful. the mistakes and evil of the past are there to serve as lessons while it is the positive and only that which we should learn and look at. this inversion of the communist “liberal” left hurts all beings. we need to stand up for history because it is another form of kindness. without omission. to all beings.
and, specific be we MUST. statues. who cares. do i care if joseph stalin still stand in some russian town. could care less. but for those people there, better believe they care. that’s why russia is still russia. a great land with too much gloom. take all those red symbols down and trash them, russia becomes great again. much as we’re becoming great again. but those same stalin elements here think that the statues we need to trash are our rightful southern heritage. actually, they want to trash everything that is human. vs. anti-life. anti-human. anything not pc. which means everything. except joseph stalin. and the like. demons. so hell is the fate of that line of thinking. anyway. this is america right. liberty. states rights. each to his own. and that means, its your choice. has nothing to do with me. in my town, better believe we dont tolerate that kind of garbage. and that’s liberty. and the ultimate assurance of safety, kindness. and the good.
Very good poem – like it!
When I Speak of History is one of the best poems commemorating motifs historical, voyages and adventurous shipwrecks sighting the break of light upon some unexpected destination so far undiscovered, unsearched and they going for a big hit. It contains in the history of Guyana, the people settled an their wanderings, who’s who in reality? Who the rulers, who the ruled? What their identity, race, archetype, culture, faith? Who the colonialists, who the colonized? What about the indentured servitude?